The Outsider Art Fair Is a Critical and Commercial Success

NEW YORK CITY

:The dealers who participated in The Outsider Art Fair left a powerful impression behind them. They came; they conquered. The show was unabashedly bold and colorful. Not only was it a commercial success for most of dealers, leaving countless valuable artworks in the hands of hungry collectors, it was also a critical success, including an effusive review in The New York Times that came out on Friday, January 28, and a segment on CBS Sunday Morning and NBC's morning show. There was plenty of time for savvy New Yorkers to zip down to the Puck Building in SoHo and see the show over the weekend. Collectors could start with unframed works by newly discovered artists priced at less than $200, or they could invest in six-figure work by big-name outsiders with museum provenance and in some cases, auction track records.

Good examples of blue chip outsider artists like Bill Traylor are hard to come by. Luise Ross, New York City, presented five Traylors, including the very fine "Figure and Dog Outside House," 1940. It was priced in the low six figures.

Deceased Chicago artist Henry Darger has become even more important since the Darger Study Center opened in New York City April of 2002. According to Jane Kallir of Galerie St. Etienne, New York City, the Darger estate stopped selling work at the end of 2004, retaining only a core group of works that they have never wanted to sell. She and Carl Hammer, Chicago, are the only dealers who had access to the estate directly. What they were able to acquire is all that remains on the market, except for a few that Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York City, managed to buy over the last several years, and perhaps a few others here and there.

It is not surprising that Kallir sold a Darger at the fair in the mid-six figures. Carl Hammer sold three Dargers at the fair and two shortly after as follow up. Eventually Dargers will start to come up at auction from private collectors.

Galerie St Etienne is celebrating its 65th year. Kallir described this year's fair: "It was very good. It had a really nice solid feeling to it. I also think it was qualitatively one of the best fairs ever. There was a nice mix of classic material and new discoveries." In addition to the Darger, the dealer sold an important work by Grandma Moses; pieces by Austrian artist Josef Karl Rädler ($8,000 a piece); two fairly well established European artists in Gugging Hospital outside of Vienna working since the early 1970s sold in the $1,000 to $3,000 range; French artist Michel Nedjar also sold in the $1,000 to $3,000 range; and a work by Ilija Bosilj of the former Yugoslavia brought $12,000.

Fair director Sanford Smith, of Sanford Smith and Associates, said the gate for the show was 7,800. In his experience, every art fair or antiques show has basic number of core attendees with some years higher or lower for various reasons (after 9/11 the fair surged to 10,000 attendees). Smith believes the core audience for the Outsider Art Fair is about 7,500-8,000. For 2003 and 2004 the attendance was within about five percent of 8,000.This year was right on target.

At Henry Boxer Gallery, Richmond, England, the religiously emotive work of Donald Pass commanded attention. Pass's bending floating angel figures are pale orange, blue, gold and light brown, all emerging from a stark indigo/ black background. Pass's work "Resurrection" was reproduced in Raw Vision, an important publication for the outsider niche. Still, it was fairly affordable at $10,000. His art is also in the collection of The Tate and other museums. According to the artist, he completely changed the nature of his painting career after two separate powerful visions that continue to be the inspiration for his art.

Sister Gertrude Morgan (Gilley's Gallery, Baton Rouge, La.), Howard Finster (Aron Packer Gallery, Chicago, and Dean Jensen Gallery, Milwaukee, Wis.), and Elijah Pierce (Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio) are all artists whose work is centered on religious messages and imagery. Janice Kennedy's intense mixed-media work "The Evil of 911" was both patriotic and religious - picturing and quoting the Bible (Galerie Bonheur, St Louis).

Outlandish and eccentric painted tin whirligigs and other creations by David Butler (Gilley's Gallery, Baton Rouge) looked great on a white wall with their outside wear-and-tear look. Clementine Hunter's oil on sheetrock painting entitled "Cotton Picking circa 1940" has the appeal of a great piece of folk art. Considered the leading authority on Hunter's work, Shelby Gilley and his wife Marie of Gilley's Gallery, had a whole wall of Clementine Hunter's work including a quilt. Shelby confided after the fair that they sold several works by Hunter and Butler as well as other Louisiana artists.

The quilts of Gees Bend made an appearance at the booth of Russell Bowman Art Advisor, Chicago, and one-of-a-kind African American quilts were featured in an ongoing slide presentation (with quilts on hand to be shown to interested clients) at Ricco/Maresca Fine Art, New York City. (The dealer dedicated its wall space to several large paintings by William Hawkins). The wonderful rabbit and cat sculptures carved in basswood by deceased Kentucky artist Linvil Barker were standouts at Usrey Gallery, Chattanooga, Tenn. Galerie Bonheur, St Louis, brought several folk paintings by self-taught artist Mary Whitfield, born in Alabama in 1947.

Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland, Calif., founded in 1974, provides art programs for physically, mentally and emotionally disabled persons. The center exhibited fresh, contemporary work with a bit of an edge. In fact, you could take various artists at the show and put them in other venues, say, The Armory Show in New York City, or Art Basel, Switzerland, for contemporary fine art and they would blend right in.

Pure Vision Arts, a nonprofit studio and gallery affiliated with The Shield Institute, New York City, was founded two years ago for artists with developmental disabilities. It offered a panorama of interesting affordable art. Pieces at the booth ranged from $200 to about $5,000. Artist Susan Brown attended the preview and was interviewed on opening night for CBS Sunday Morning. Artist Leon McCutcheon was also there at the fair showing his work that was inspired from growing up down South.

A.G. Rizzoli was represented with the magnificent "Virginia Ann Entwistle Symbolically Sketched" of 1944 that was a 36 by 24 "blueprint" on paper of a nonexistent building that was a portrait of Entwistle. A visual rhapsody in blue, it was featured by longtime Rizzoli specialist Bonnie Grossman at Ames Gallery, Berkeley, Calif.

Very noticeable this year, a slew of different artists made the frame part of the work of art. Alex Maldonado (Ames Gallery, Berkeley, Calif.), Simon Sparrow (Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago), Sarah Rakes (Gilley's Gallery, Baton Rouge), Oficina de Agosto (Galerie Bourbon-Lally) and Chris Roberts (The Pardee Collection, Iowa City, Iowa) are a just a few of the artists whose work was enhanced by these decorated frames.

Phyllis Kind took fair attendees on a world tour to India, Switzerland, the United States, Italy, the UK, Japan, Haiti, Jamaica and France. A Japanese film crew from NHK was filming the show on opening night, adding to the "you're in the 'in' place" feeling of the evening. Perhaps they noted the four Japanese artists from Incurve in Osaka, Japan, whose work was front and center at Phyllis Kind's booth.

American Primitive Gallery, New York City, brought a great selection of works by Seattle outsider Terry Turrell. His paintings and sculptures draw the viewer into a private world where there is more than meets the eye. The mixed media bust of a man with Turrell's trademark luminous gray surface had a soulful presence, but it was not until dealer Aarne Anton opened up the figure's head to expose a hollow space with tiny birds inside that the title "Aviary" made sense.

We get obsessive detail, vision and an international flavor - all familiar spices in the artistic cuisine we call outsider - in the work of Pushpa Kumari. Her untitled ink on paper from 2003 measured 30 by 22 inches. Of Indian heritage, Kumari's work has the look of traditional Indian artisans except her work is even more detailed. "She bridges fine craft to fine art with her vision. A lot of it is about duality," said Randall Morris, pointing out the hermaphrodite subject.

Paintings of coal miners by folk artist Jack Savitsky (1910-1991) at Grey Carter Gallery had a humble honesty about them. "This is not an easy life," they proclaim with quiet dignity. Savitsky went to work in the coalmines of Pennsylvania after completing the sixth grade. He worked in the mines for 35 years. His work is represented in several museum collections.

Reynald Lally of Galerie Bourbon-Lally, Montreal, Canada, has been asked to be a guest curator for an upcoming traveling museum exhibition of Haitian art organized by the Brazilian Government, something that is dear to his heart. His booth surrounded showgoers with hot tropical colors and exuberant mixed media pieces. Missionary Mary Proctor created a spectacular assemblage of small toys an other items in the form of a dancing woman for "There Lives a Child Within Me." Haitian voodoo flags were piled together on a front table, most with graphic and figurative designs in brightly colored sequins and beads sewn onto fabric grounds. These were priced from about $600 up.

Sherry Pardee of the Pardee Collection, Iowa City, Iowa, brought "Scare Crow" assemblages made by deceased black African American artist Hawkins Bolden for his Memphis garden. Made from metal trashcan lids, pots and other found objects, they have a graphic tangibility that is poignant considering that the artist was blind.

A rising star could be spotted at the booth of Marion Harris, New York City. Five large graphite drawings were hung moments before the doors opened for Thursday evening's preview. The exquisite drawings were the work of self-taught Wisconsin artist Cynthia Lund Torroll who juxtaposed children's faces with wild elements of wilderness, sharply textured tree bark and leaves. Her surreal imagery was drawn with uncanny talent, perfectly capturing the smooth radiance of the children's skin. Not surprisingly, four of the five pieces sold on opening night. This was the first time her work had been shown in New York City, although she is also represented by Henry Boxer Gallery of England.

After the show, Luise Ross said that two of her rising stars were French artist Jean-Pierre Nadau with his black ink drawings on canvas and Dutch artist Jeroen Pomp, who celebrated his 20th birthday during the Outsider Art Fair weekend. Pomp's work was very popular with about five colored pencil abstract mosaics of birds, animals, human figures and landscapes as well as a portrait in oil stick all selling.

John Barton had been painting for decades before he worked up the courage to approach a gallery and ask the dealer if she thought his work was really good enough to be considered art. Fortunately, the dealer he asked was Laurie Carmody, owner of Galerie Bonheur in St Louis. Nine original works by John Barton found new homes this year at the Outsider Art Fair. This is definitely a fair where patrons can support struggling artists.